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Welcome! I’m an ESL teacher in Japan. I studied Japanese for 3 years in college and continue to study through books, classes, and everyday living. I have a large group of friends that enable me to practice Japanese on a regular basis and experience Japan as if I were not a foreigner, as opposed to spending my time at American/English bars or foreign travel groups(not to say that’s a bad thing). With some help from my friends and some determination I plan to become a translator someday.

Goals

While I’m working in Japan I plan to focus on spending all of my earnings on traveling around Asia. Prior to coming to Japan I had no experience with foreign travel, not even Canada. I have only truly explored 6 or 7 states, but by the time I return to America I plan to be a highly experienced traveler. Within the next year, I will be going to Vietnam and India, but with any luck I will also see South Korea and parts of China. In the meantime, I will be traveling all over Japan to areas ranging from Okinawa to Hokkaido and everything in between. I’ve seen a number of areas in Japan already, but it’s a big country with a lot of history and I plan to capture as much as a person can.

Thanks!

Any questions or comments are always welcome. If your curious about a certain area or topic then let me know I can try to write about it in the future. If there’s any other tips or tricks you are interested in while traveling through Japan, then please inform me so I can mention it in the next blog. Enjoy!

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Discussion

17 thoughts on “About Me”

Hello,

I am going to japan to teach next year and i was wandering what company or school you are with. i have heard some good things about certain places and bad things about others so i am unsure where to apply and where is best.
i was also wondering where about you are placed for teaching. I’m trying to be a cliche foreigner and get placed near tokyo as it is the area where i have at least one friend already and most want to see. XD

There’s good and bad wherever you go, but the true experience comes from what you make of what you have in my opinion. I’m currently working for a small private conversational school that I attained through a recommendation. Some of the top companies that place teachers for TEFL are ECC, JET, and AEON. If you get a job with one of those companies, then chances are you’ll be in very good shape. My only recommendation is that you are sure you enjoy teaching, because some people don’t understand how demanding it can be or how serious of a position it truly is.
In terms of location, I’m currently in Aichi Prefecture, close to Nagoya. It’s pretty much the center of Japan and gives me freedom to go anywhere without spending too much money. The downside being, although Nagoya is one of the largest cities in Japan, it is not as exciting as Tokyo or Osaka. Tokyo is an amazing place and opens up plenty of opportunities for various experiences, but it is far from Kyoto, Osaka, Kanazawa, Hiroshima areas which makes travel a bit difficult. It all depends on what you’re looking for.
I hope this helps! If you have any other questions then feel free to ask.

Thanks a lot for your very informative blog.
My 10 year old son wants to go to Japan just to visit the company that makes Pokemon.
Can you possibly include this in one of your future blogs? I would like to surprise my only son
by getting some valuable information and pictures of his favorite toy characters – Pokemon and its makers.
Thanks…Shalom:>

Hi!
Great goals! Yes, the country is big indeed. My goal is to travel to all of Japan. I’ve been to 41 of the 47 prefectures. Still 6 more to go (on of them is Okinawa). Also, I want to visit 100 Japanese castles. This is a tough one. I’ve been to 64 castles so far.
I only focus on Japan for now, so I haven’t travelled to any other countries yet.

I seriously can’t believe what I’m seeing right now. I was googling up on some information about Chubu Daigaku’s Festival because one of the Karate members at my dojo invited me to come check it out… and I’m here thinking, this person’s blog is really really awesome it’d be nice to meet and talk to this guy about all his experiences… and then I see you’re from Ohiyo.. and then I see a photo of you… and I was starting at it for like 10 seconds and then I go ‘Oh my God, it’s Brad. I was just talking to him on the train home!’ hahahaha

I’ve enjoyed reading through your blog https://travelnihon.wordpress.com because of the great style and energy. I have a blog on travel theme. If you’re interested, we would love to have you on as a guest blogger. Please send me an e-mail and I can give you more information. Looking forward to hearing from you.